December 12, 2010

Hi everyone, I'm so excited to announce that I was featured in Crochet Today's January/February 2011 issue. I also want to welcome any visitors that read about me & my designs in the magazine. I always feel a bit unnerved when things like this happen because I don't exactly know what to say. I'm excited, but I don't want it to come across as bragging, you know?

I was contacted earlier this Fall about being interviewed, but even after the interview, I didn't really want to say anything until I actually had a magazine in hand. I hope you enjoyed reading about the how I got started and why I do things the way I do.

As a thank you to everyone for their support if you purchase $15 or more in patterns from my Ravelry shop you'll receive 15% off when you enter the coupon code CTOwlishly when you check out. Remember, this is only the Ravelry shop, this offer does not apply to Etsy.

Thanks everyone!

ETA- This offer is good through the month of December, it expires December 31, 2010 at 11:59pm (though I doubt anyone would be buying one of my patterns at that time on New Years Eve :)

November 29, 2010

Hi everyone, I'm popping on quick to let you know that today, and today only, I'm having a birthday sale on all my patterns, both at Etsy and Ravelry. Everything is 29% off since it's the 29th, so it's a great time to pick up a pattern or two at a good discount :) Ravelry should automatically discount any purchase at checkout, but with Etsy you'll have to enter a coupon code: BIRTHDAY.

November 09, 2010

I don't know if I'd ever mentioned before how I like to stuff my little dolls. I'd taken pictures a while ago to help illustrate what I do, but I don't remember ever having gotten around to using them. I get questions from time to time about how to get even looking heads (specifically) and body pieces so I thought I'd show and tell how I do it.

First and foremost, crochet your stitches as absolutely tight and uniform as possible. This is very important so that there won't be gaping holes where you see the fiberfil/roving when you get it stuffed as full as you can.

The amount of fiberfil that is used is a very large amount in comparison to the size of the head. It usually ends up being double the amount that you think will suffice, and even then you might want to stuff it even fuller.

I've found that lumpiness and odd shapes are reduced when I use a great deal of small bits of fiberfil as opposed to using a big lump of it. You get a small tuft of the fiberfill and then pull at it, stretching it apart until it's barely held together, then at that point it's ready to be inserted. While inserting the fiberfil, take care to place it as evenly distributed as possible around the shape you're stuffing.

As I fill I make sure to stretch the fabric of whatever shape I'm stuffing from the inside, pulling and shaping from the outside and using a scraping motion on the inside with the back of my crochet hook or whatever other tool I'm using to help stuff.

Just keep stuffing, pretty much until the head becomes a little hard ball, and can't be stuffed anymore.

At the point that no more fiberfil will fit, finish crocheting the shape taking care that your stitches are still tight and uniform and seal the hole.

Remember all that fiberfil in the first image? Even though the head already looked full, all of the fiberfil shown with it was stuffed into the head. This makes for a very hardheaded little doll which makes them perfect representations of my stubborn little kids :)

November 08, 2010

I got distracted this evening making hexagons and swatching granny squares for a bunting or garland. I guess it's called either word, just depends which one you like more. Anyway, I think I'd mentioned it before but my husband is in the service and left today to be gone until Christmas so I was trying to distract my kids most of the evening with stuff they wanted to do.

My daughter decided she wanted to decorate around her bed and asked me to make something. I'd been planning on doing granny-ish type squares in a sort of papel picado type design, but then I thought I'd try hexagons too, since I wanted those :)

I also made a bunch of 1" pin back buttons for my son of all his favorite Star Wars lego characters. I had him choose right before bed, so in the morning he should be happy to see them all pinned to his backpack.

So the pattern writing had to wait, I'm going to try to get to it tomorrow morning after I drop the kids off and get the PTO agenda typed up.

November 07, 2010

So with the time change I'm hoping to start getting up regularly at around 5:30 or (more likely) 6 to be more productive, especially since my husband won't be taking the kids to school every morning for a couple of months :)

I'm also thinking about holiday crafting too, I've been looking at different square motifs to make a fun and festive garland.

I will be doing a giveaway soon, I need to get everything together and choose a morning next week to decide what's going out and what the parameters are going to be.

I also need to come up with some tasty and healthy crockpot recipes, I'd like to need to spend less time cooking dinner and more time hanging out.

I'm trying to get back into blogging regularly, so if I sound disjointed just know that I'm trying to work out the kinks, and it's kind of hard when I don't have the time that I used to for crafting, so I'm trying not to blog anything too mundane and boring, but at the same time this is a blog that chronicles what's happening with me too so mundane will pop up from time to time.

November 06, 2010

So I feel like I'm teasing you, but I wanted to let you know I'm working on her pattern tonight. I think I'm going to name her Iolani, from the information I can find, it means bird of heaven, and when I look at the colors I used on her I'm reminded of birds of paradise. It's also the name of the palace where the last Hawaiian monarchy lived and where Queen Lili`uokalani was imprisioned.

I don't know what the heck I was doing with my camera when I took pictures to explain the lei in the pattern, but I must have changed something drastically since there is a ridiculous amount of noise in each of those photos. I'm trying to fix them and lighten the finished doll's photos, I'm concerned about the colors and light in all the pictures- are they coming out well for you?

November 05, 2010

Just a quick "Hooray, my Dad won!" shout out to all my real life friends and family who read my blog.

I'm really proud of my Dad, he took the high road and campaigned on issues instead of smearing the incumbent (who sent out some pretty slimy and completely untrue mailers by the way!), he definitely deserved the win and has years of education and experience that should really benefit the city.

Good job!

. . . . . . . . .

Back to crafty stuff soon, including some giveaways- I've cleared out my books and tools!

November 04, 2010

My favorites file is overflowing onto my computer's desktop right now, being online and clicking from one link to another is always fun in a serendipitous kind of way. Not everything in the wish list is for me though, most of it ends up being for my kids, though I do have to add a thing or two for me regularly.

To buy:

I think these plates would be a super fun for my little ones, I think they'd get a big kick out of eating off of their faces.

My daughter loves rabbits, for the longest time she thought when she grows up she'd marry one. Thankfully she's outgrown that line of thinking, but she'd love to have one- I think this might be the next best thing, though I'm wondering if 4 is still too young for a necklace of any kind.

I don't know if I'd buy this desktop dodgeball for my kids or myself- I think either of us would spend quite some time playing with it.

This would make my son's day and his birthday's coming up in December, but I don't know if this might be more his speed, or if he'd think that it was too babyish. Heaven forbid a soon to be 7 year old get something a bit young, and since he broke his arm and had to go to regular appointments with his orthopedic surgeon and pass (and touch!) a full sized skeleton each time the former may indeed be the best choice.

I on the other hand am really digging this necklace, it would eliminate my constant desire to see the longest shaving I can get whenever I sharpen pencils.

To make:

This doll quilt looks like it's a doable holiday project, eventually I'd like to make one for our king size bed, but I think I need to start my foray into quilting with something more manageable and work my way up. Although it might be a while, these might be too tempting!

We've also recently adopted a dachshund named Chloe and I've been itching to make her some sweaters. I'm still undecided, but herearesome free patterns to try, even though I already bought the wurstwarmer pattern the day she came home with us.

To contemplate:

I've been thinking about our home, and how I keep it a lot lately too- this seems to hit the nail on the head for me.

Now thankfully, I can close a bunch of open tabs and go listen to some Pride and Prejudice (via craftlit) while I was dishes, Jane Austen never ceases to lift my spirits!

November 03, 2010

I made my daughter's costume last year, and happily she wanted to wear it again this year, does it look familiar? Thankfully in this picture you can't really see where she decided to cut chunks out of her hair, she did it on Saturday night when I went to a movie with my sisters. Then Sunday morning I was walking past her and noticed all of a sudden she had bangs, then I moved her hair and it was cut almost to the scalp above her left eyebrow. Yeah add to that the ruined $26 Dior lipstick that I found in the bathroom when I got home too, isn't it so nice what happens when my husband is in charge!?

My son on the other hand couldn't decide what he wanted to be, he was being super wishy washy and since I was book fair mom for the week before Halloween I knew I didn't have time to make him a costume. Conveniently, he finally decided on Indiana Jones, we had almost everything in their closets to make his costume except the whip. A friend offered to lend him on from an adventure party she threw her own son, and then I'd found a tutorial to make one that looked pretty good, but in the end I decided that a whip and my son were not a good match- he's a maniac! He seemed to be pretty pleased with his costume, especially his stubble and was only slightly crestfallen when he was mistaken by one woman as a hobo :)

November 02, 2010

The funny thing is that I haven't switched from an absentee voter, but I always take my ballot in on the election day. I like the sticker :)

Something else that's kinda neat is that I voted in my second grade classroom. My family and I live in the house I grew up in and our polling place is the elementary school I went to. You can find your polling place here :)